


Day 1: Percy Jackson

by Luwucifer_wants_your_soul



Series: MerMay Whump 2020 [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Day 1, F/M, Gen, Hurt Percy, Hurt/Comfort, Percy whump, WaterWhump2020, Whump, anchor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:28:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23975263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luwucifer_wants_your_soul/pseuds/Luwucifer_wants_your_soul
Summary: Day 1 prompt: AnchorPercy gets in trouble alone in a lake.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, but I mean - Relationship, it's not that important to the story
Series: MerMay Whump 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1728589
Comments: 2
Kudos: 107





	Day 1: Percy Jackson

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Impaling
> 
> Aight so I haven't written whump in a good long while, please be gentle. Plus I completely forgot where I was going so the ending is a bit awkward sorry <3

“Percy, are you sure about this?”

Perseus Jackson stood on the deck of the Argo 2 and stared out across the glimmering water, eyes reflecting the waves. The son of Poseidon sighed, and turned towards his girlfriend.

“Honestly? No, but I don’t really know what else we can do right now.” 

“He’s right,” Piper stepped forward and motioned towards the water. “Katoptris said that there was something here that we need, and I only saw Percy going into the lake. Besides, it’s not like anyone else can breathe underwater,” she glanced at Percy, who nodded at her. “I don’t like it either, but if it’s something that can help us stop Gaea, then it’s worth the risk.”

“But-! It’s not like the visions that Styx-damned dagger show you are ever  _ safe _ ! They always end up with someone getting hurt, and I can’t-!”

“Hey, it’s okay Annabeth, I’ll be right back, nothing’s going to happen,” Percy reached out and placed a hand on Annabeth’s shoulder, but she stepped back, shrugging him off. The daughter of Athena wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering as she looked out across the water herself.

“I don’t know… I just have a bad feeling about this…”

Percy sighed and eyed the water. The Argo 2 was hovering over an enormous lake, not very far from where they had last run into a flock of Stymphalian birds. The water was strangely green, shimmering strangely in the late afternoon light. Even though it was a lake, there were decent sized waves crashing against the rocky cliffs that ringed it. As Percy watched at the water, a chill ran down his spine, like there was someone watching him. He shook himself, and flashed a grin in Annabeth’s direction.

“Come on, I’ve done stuff a lot harder than free diving in a lake. It’ll be fine!”

Annabeth still looked concerned, but she nodded. A few minutes later, Percy found himself hanging from the last rung of the ladder on the Argo 2, staring at the water. It was even greener up close. He shuddered, the weird chill spidering up his back again. He looked back up at the ship, before closing his eyes and jumping into the water.

It was cold as  _ Styx _ . Holy mother of Hera it was absolutely freezing. Percy gasped as he registered the cold and he spent a moment just floating and shivering. He shook his head.

_ I’ll warm up if I start swimming _ . He peered around himself in the murk, wondering what exactly he was supposed to be looking for, before he shrugged and started swimming off in a direction.

As he moved through the water, Percy noticed that there seemed to be no life in the lake at all. Which was strange. Actually, it was more than strange. There weren’t any fish, or crabs, or even those tiny little bugs that sometimes float around in the water and are super annoying to get out of your hair. There wasn’t even any plant life. Not an ounce of seaweed, not a patch of seagrass. And yet the water was still a bright emerald green. That was… odd. Percy paused for a moment, closing his eyes and concentrating. Normally he could tell when there were fish or other sea creatures nearby - it was a sort of prickling sensation on his skin, that Annabeth told him must be him sensing their electromagnetic pulses, or something. But right now he felt nothing. The lake was truly and utterly empty.

Percy’s eyes snapped open as a breath of frigid water ghosted across him. He whirled in the direction of the sudden current, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. Percy blinked upon realizing just how dark it had gotten in the lake. The sun must have gone down above water, and despite Percy’s heightened vision it was getting difficult to see.

He pulled Riptide out of his pocket and uncapped the pen. It expanded out into his sword, the Celestial bronze glowing faintly. Immediately, Percy doubled over in pain. The moment his sword appeared, a grating scream echoed throughout the water. Shrill and rising in pitch, it tore at the demigod as he wrapped his arms around his head in a desperate attempt to block the noise out. It reverberated in his bones, turning over and over in the water, coming in waves that grew more and more horrible. Percy pitched his own voice to the din, screaming. It felt like his head was going to burst, oh gods make it stop make it stop  _ make it stop..! _

All of a sudden, it cut off, and Percy was left shuddering in the dark water. He uncurled slowly. He had dropped Riptide, and it had not yet reappeared in his pocket. He looked around himself, shaking, trying to find his sword or what made the screaming, when a creaking from behind him drew his attention.

A deep groan sounded through the water right before a shattering boom blasted through Percy. Right before Percy’s eyes, a huge ship, likely sunk decades ago, judging by the state of decay, emerged from the darkness. It bore down on him, a hulking shape in the water, sharp spines of wood and metal jutting out of it in every direction. Another crack of wood shot through the water, and Percy cried out, trying to harden the water around him to protect himself from the wreckage. The water swirled around him, freezing cold and Percy swore it laughed at him.

Percy whited out for a moment at the impact. All the air (water?) was knocked from his lungs as the ship powered through the water, carrying him down with it. The demigod was pinned to the front of the ship, kept in place by the sheer force of the wreck as it sank farther. His chest heaved with the effort of trying to bring water into his lungs, despite the speed at which the liquid was moving past him. He dizzily raised his head and had just enough time to register the lake bed coming up toward them before the ship crashed into the ground.

\-----------------------

Annabeth nervously paced on the deck of the Argo 2. It had been two hours since Percy went down into the lake, and so far no one had heard anything. Piper was watching Katoptris, Leo was doing repairs on the ship, and Hazel, Frank and Jason were helping him. Annabeth knew that, yes, rationally speaking, this wasn’t the most dangerous thing Percy had ever done. But the feeling of unease that first started when Piper told them about her vision had just grown when Percy disappeared in the water, which also was  _ decidedly not behaving like lake water _ , and excuse Annabeth for worrying about her boyfriend who seemed to attract trouble wherever he went.

She paused in her pacing for a moment, chewing on her lip anxiously. Annabeth glanced towards the water once, before storming towards the mast where Leo was perched hammering something.

The sudden boom that ripped through the air shook the ship and Annabeth nearly fell over. Leo yelped from above her and she heard startled cries from the other demigods. Annabeth whirled around, almost tripping over herself as she ran back to the railing.

The water, a once shining green, relatively undisturbed, had turned into a swirling mess. The water sloshed angrily against the cliffs, tearing chunks out of the stone and turning the water cloudy and dark. A trail of deep black blossomed out from the far side of the lake, trailing farther and farther out into the middle of the lake.

Another boom made Annabeth jump and cling to the railing of the ship.

“What the Hades is happening?” Leo’s indignant yelling drew next to the daughter of Athena, just as the other demigods appeared on deck.

“What’s going on?” Jason had his sword out, ready to fight. “Are we under attack?”

Annabeth shook her head, unable to tear her eyes away from the black stain spreading across the water. Piper gasped as she saw the lake.

“Oh my gods, is-? What’s -?”

“Percy’s in trouble,” Annabeth gasped out, feeling lightheaded. “Percy’s in trouble, we have to go get him,” she started moving towards the ladder that still hung from the side of the ship when a hand grabbed her around the wrist. She looked back to see Jason, a worried look on his face.

“Annabeth, you can’t go underwater. Frank and I will go,” the blonde looked back at Frank, who nodded. The two boys raced over toward the ledge of the ship. They leapt off, Frank gliding down as some kind of bird while Jason did his Superman thing. Annabeth watched as they hit the surface of the now black water.

_ Please be okay, Seaweed Brain. _

\-----------------------

Percy groaned. Oh gods, everything hurt. He cracked his eyes open to see complete blackness. He squinted, trying to make out anything that could explain why everything hurt so damn much. His eyes slowly adjusted and he was able to see jagged bits of rusted metal and rotten wood surrounding him. He groaned again as he remembered how he got in this position. The shipwreck. The screaming.

The ship must have folded around him when it hit the bottom for him to have survived. Percy glared around himself, trying to make out more of his surroundings. He moved to sit up when a searing pain in his leg made him cry out and sink back. The ship’s anchor had somehow gotten tangled up in the wreckage of the bow. It was laying over him, and by some miracle had not fallen flat and crushed him. However, one of the flukes was stabbed straight through his thigh. As soon as he noticed the pain, Percy was overwhelmed with the smell and taste of iron in the water and he gagged.

Eyes squeezed shut, Percy slowly sat up, grimacing as every movement pulled at the torn flesh. He still couldn’t see very well through the murky water. The demigod reached into his pocket and was overwhelmed with relief when his fingers curled around Riptide. He uncapped it and the sword sent a faint glow over his surroundings. The anchor was fairly small, and thank the gods for that, or else it might have sheared his leg off entirely. The metal was completely rusted apart, but despite Percy’s best efforts, it wouldn’t shift. He choked back a sob. 

The others must have heard the ship cracking, right? Percy shuddered and looked up towards the surface. He cried out as the movement jostled his leg. Whimpering slightly, Percy clung to the anchor. He could still taste his blood in the water. Maybe it was the cold, but Percy felt sluggish. He shuddered, eyes trying to focus on the wreckage as black spots crept into his vision. His head bobbed in the current and he thought he heard a voice laughing. Percy vaguely noted that it looked like he had been wrong about there being no fish, since there was something yellow and purple coming towards him. He took a moment to wonder whether he should be worried about that, but gods he was… really tired. If the fish wanted to eat him it would just have to wake him up later.

\-----------------------

Jason waved his sword through the water in a wide arc, trying to orient himself in the murk. Frank had transformed into a giant goldfish when they entered the water, which at the time did not seem particularly useful, but Jason realized now was pretty smart, considering his scales had a pale glow to them. Frank swam through the water a little ways away from Jason, avoiding the miniature tornado the son of Jupiter had formed around himself.

The two had landed about where the black streak started out from and they had found a torn up lakebed with a good amount of debris from what looked to be a sailing ship. The only problem was, there was no ship. Jason felt the unease rising in him as the two followed the trail of destruction along the bottom of the lake. Whatever had made it was  _ big _ , and Jason did not want to think about what that could mean.

Frank suddenly came to a stop in front of him. The goldfish made an odd burbling noise before heading straight down. Jason swallowed and followed him. He gasped when the wreckage of a ship emerged from the darkness. It was crushed to pieces, spread across a large expanse of the lakebed.

_ Well, guess we know what made that boom. _

The pair approached the ship. Frank morphed into a shark to fit better, leaving Jason to hold his sword out in front of him as a rudimentary light.

“Come on Jackson, you better be down here…” the blonde muttered under his breath. As they swam closer towards the front of the ship, Jason noticed a faint glow. He motioned to Frank, who nodded as best he could. Jason pulled his sword back and crept out from behind a splintered segment of wall.

Percy was clinging to an anchor like his life depended on it, Riptide unsheathed and lying next to him in the wreckage. Jason sighed with relief and moved towards the other demigod. Percy lifted his head and Jason noticed the glazed over look in his eyes a moment before the son of the sea god shivered and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Jason dove forward, registering the anchor embedded in Percy’s leg and the red tint to the water around them as Frank came into view. Jason nodded towards the anchor and together, he and Frank managed to drag it out of and off of Percy.

The blonde grabbed Percy under the shoulders. As the air pocket moved around him, the teen groaned. Jason and Frank powered through the water, breaking through the surface of the lake two hundred meters or so from where the Argo 2 was hovering. Frank morphed back into a bird while Jason adjusted his grip on Percy, flying up towards the ship.

The others had gathered on the deck and the moment they landed Annabeth pulled Percy away from the blonde.

“What happened?” Hazel watched, eyes wide, as Annabeth started cleaning the wound with nectar while Piper ran below deck to get bandages. 

“There was a shipwreck down there, and he got pinned under the anchor somehow,” Jason explained.

“He’s lost some blood, but you’ll be fine, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth muttered, almost to herself, as she finished cleaning the wound. Piper reappeared and thrust a roll of bandages at Annabeth, who promptly wrapped them around the hole in Percy’s leg. The son of Poseidon stirred, groaning slightly as his eyes blinked open. They found their way over to Annabeth and he grinned at her.

“Told you… it’d be fine.”

She choked back a sob, half relief and half exasperation and threw her arms around his neck. She released him after a moment and he blearily looked around at the demigods standing around him, before finally settling on Piper.

“Piper… I think your dagger is trying to kill us…” he slurred as the others laughed around him.


End file.
